Guest Post: Stealing Baby Kisses

September 12, 2011

Hi! My name is Ashley and I blog over at Stealing Baby Kisses. My wonderful Husband and I have been married 3 years and our littlest love of our lives is our sweet Brayden. Brayden is our miracle baby. I was told shortly after we got married that I would not be able to get pregnant. After 16 months and 2 IVF’s later we found out we were pregnant! Brayden was born 7 weeks early. He is now 9 months old and doing great!

~~~~~~~~~~

Some days I wish I could be that naive pregnant lady I was months ago when I had no idea how hard being a mom would be. (It’s the most rewarding thing you will ever do. Yes. But that’s not what this post is about…) Some how I found the nerve to complain about being tired thought I was tired before having a baby. Some how I thought it was annoying to wake up often to pee. Some how I thought it was annoying that food never tasted good to me. Of course at the time they seemed like big deals. And if you are pregnant right now with your first I am in no way trying to belittle your feelings. I was there. And I had out of this world horrible morning sickness. (That had me in the ER multiple times for dehydration and a couple nights of overnight stays. So I get it.)

Not finding anything to eat that sounds good? How about trying to find time to eat PERIOD. And getting up to pee? That’s nothing compared to waking up every 2-3 hours to nurse your baby for (seven!) MONTHS.

I love Brayden more than my heart can hold. But what I didn’t expect was how hard being a mother would be. Some days it’s still hard for me to find the time to take a shower and eat. And running errands is exhausting. Gone are the days of just running to a few places in a short amount of time. Brayden is without a doubt a high needs baby.

Getting ready to leave the house takes forever. Getting ready for church on Sundays? A lifetime.

No sleeping in. Nothing anymore is on my time. You can think you are the least selfish person in the world, but the moment you have a baby you realize just how selfish you were. Everything now revolves around my new role as a mother. I eat, sleep, and shower on his time schedule. It’s no longer what I want to do when I want to do it.

I get it now why people told me to sleep while I could. At the time I thought it was ridiculous advice. You can’t store up sleep! But I think they meant (at least this is what I am taking it to mean now) sleep now while you can. Sleep in while you can. Enjoy your sleep…even if you are getting up a million times at night to pee and get yourself comfortable again. Enjoy just laying in your bed while you can. Because as soon as he is up for the day I am non stop doing this and that. And he isn’t even a toddler yet!

Being a mom is hard. I am everyday making decisions for a little person that can’t speak yet. I am caring for a person that can’t take care of himself yet, and can’t even tell me in words what he needs.

And I love him so much that it’s hard sometimes to not second guess my decisions that I do make. The longer though that I am his mother the more comfortable I get in my new role. I don’t second guess myself as much. And I am the best at reading him. We are together all day. Just the two of us. How could I not be the expert in reading him?

I’m sure when he is a toddler I’ll look back at this and laugh and think “I thought being a Mom was hard then?!?”

I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But it’s hard. I think this is way they start out small and cute. 🙂

And sometimes it would be nice to have even just 5 minutes of obsessing over all that stupid…uh I mean…not as life changing as I thought it would be…things like the color we were going to paint the nursery and the theme of the nursery. When the little things seemed like a big deal….because the saying is SO true.

Motherhood is the most rewarding and challenging thing you will ever do!

Hopefully I’m not the only one…Is motherhood harder than you thought it would be? Or at least how is it different than you thought it would be?

Comments

I keep wondering if I’m going to regret all the complaining I’ve done the last 32 weeks once Peighton gets here. I guess I will. I can’t wait to experience being a mom and taking care of her, but your post puts the truth in perspective for me. Reality check here! I should start counting sheep now and enjoy the last 8 weeks of it. Brayden is a lucky guy to have you as his mommy, but I love your honesty about how difficult it is. I guess with the excitement of finally getting pregnant and enjoying all the kicks/rolls/punches from within we forget that the hard part starts after the pregnancy is over. Love your posts as always Ashley!

I am in the same boat with you, I never knew how hard being a mother would actually be. I think all along when I was pregnant I was being naive about everything. I wouldnt take back being a mother for anything but now I cherish all the sleep I can get!

Being pregnant naive sounds good right about now! Dealing with 2 teething babies and working a demanding job full time equals NO sleep =(I really do wish I could have stored up all that sleep I got when I was pregnant and on bedrest, I might have been bored then but God I want it back for just one day lol

Love that you wrote this Ashley! I often think back and wonder what I thought being a mom was going to be like. I didn’t expect this! I adore him but it’s SO hard and then people ask about the next one and the husband wants two more and I want to go at get my tubes tied because now that I know how hard one is I think I’m good!

I say/think the same thing all the time. I wouldn’t trade one second for anything but it is a lot harder and more exhausting than I thought it would be. Even in the middle of it all, though, I know I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be! 🙂You are a great momma! This was a great post :)_